Television reception afloat.

[Bruce Dibben]

Seventy year old boat owning bod would like to keep his 32ft yacht in the water through the winter. Can anybody help with suggestions of receiving a TV signal for the long dark evening tied to a marina berth with the second highest tides in the world? Yes, I know I could spend thousands on a fancy dish but do not have silly money to spend. I am resistant to drilling holes in cabin top of my Hunter Legend 32 and mounting a gadget that would soon get demolished on a fresh wind thrash now and again. Surely if men can send drones to war from a joystick jockey in the USA, we can get something cheap and cheerful for a humble yacht.
Bruce

 

[NickRobinson]

I cancelled my TV licence a couple of years ago so now use my internet connection, tethered to a laptop or tablet to watch catchup (legally) on BBC Iplayer.

Do you have a good phone signal? I have unlimited data but have R4 on most of the time anyway and now R4 Extra if you have a look at the Aldi DAB radio thread.

A caravan Omnimax and powered booster could work. Even something that could live below when sailing/unoccupied?

 

[SteveSarabande]

Seventy year old boat owning bod would like to keep his 32ft yacht in the water through the winter. Can anybody help with suggestions of receiving a TV signal for the long dark evening tied to a marina berth with the second highest tides in the world? Yes, I know I could spend thousands on a fancy dish but do not have silly money to spend. I am resistant to drilling holes in cabin top of my Hunter Legend 32 and mounting a gadget that would soon get demolished on a fresh wind thrash now and again. Surely if men can send drones to war from a joystick jockey in the USA, we can get something cheap and cheerful for a humble yacht.
Bruce

Interested where you are. 2nd highest tides in the world are in Avonmouth, but most of the marina berths up there are locked and don't go up and down.

 

[johnalison]

I can't help you with your local reception, but we generally get a good signal with a cheap digital aerial bought for about £20 from Tesco, though there are no doubt better ones around. It needs its own power, but we often get a decent picture from within the cabin, or just above the companionway.

 

[Burnham Bob]

How fast is the marina wifi? If it's not fast enough, like a previous response, we can watch tv using the phone to provide a mobile hotspot. eats data though so you'll need an unlimited contract but that might be cheaper than laying out for new kit. Data connections are usually less fussy than tv aerials.

The alternative is to use Iplayer, or - if you have it - skygo and downoad your favourite programmes during the week and watch them on a laptop when you are on the marina beth - assuming you live ashore that is.

Assuming you do live ashore and you don't want to miss programs while you are on the boat (my wife watches the X Factor and I leave the room) you could record them and watch dvds on the boat. Also agree with the previous post about R4 Extra - usually worth a listen.

 

[C08]

We use a glomex (small one) mastop aerial and mostly have a good signal up to 20 miles offshore south coast UK. My wife usually catches up on the soaps en route! The glomex comes with a booster that does make a difference.

 

[Richard10002]

You could get lucky and find an aerial on a pole fixed to the rails might do the trick. Assuming you are on a pontoon, and don't plan to go anywhere, it could be semi permanent and directional.

I had a Triax UFO omnidirectional with booster at the top if a 15m mast which worked everywhere I went from Glasson Dock to Malta and back. Didn't have big tides, so don't think I was ever at any depth below harbour walls or such like. Glomex was one of the alternatives as was Status.

I'd be thinking of some kind of directional log periodic if it were me

 

[RIBW]

Interested where you are. 2nd highest tides in the world are in Avonmouth, but most of the marina berths up there are locked and don't go up and down.

+1 Between Bristol, Watchet and Cardiff you will be under, possibly, Wenvoe or Mendip with several other fill ins. The usual problem in the area is selecting fewer signals to avoid receiving the wrong region (West or Wales). Have you tried a simple yagi on the cabin roof - lead the cable in temporarily through a vent or port.

Cheers
Bob

PS The rise and fall of the tide may be a problem only if you have a reflective path off the sea in addition to the direct path (air only).

 

[Spyro]

I have a telescopic pole with a normal digital aerial. It slips into a bracket at the top of the pole and all that slides into a tube on the pushpit. It can be pointed in any direction and fixed in place with a small wooden wedge between the pole and tube. Difficult to explain but I will take pictures some day. I have a permanent coax cable run from the TV in the saloon to a female plug in the Cockpit locker, The aerial has a length of coax connected to a male plug on the end. Just connect the 2 together.
There are loads of transmitters all over the west coast but the aerial needs to be pointed at them and the tv retuned every time I move to a new transmitter.
The aerial requires no power and only takes 2 mins to set up. I'm sure it works better than a Omni directional one at the top of the mast.

 

[Billjratt]

Freeview (terrestial) does what it says on the tin. If you're on a pontoon berth you can possibly use a basic aerial but I prefer a small masthead omnidirectional dome like the Nargus which is active -ie amplified. That means it's sensitive and way up in the air - works for me in the West coast where we may not have the tides, but we do have the hills.

 

[Martin&Rene]

This web site
http://www.aerialsandtv.com/touringaerials.html
covers receiving signals on canal boats and caravans, but I found it very useful. I considered their views on omni-directional aerials and so bought one of their DM18 log aerials, on the basis that it is small and has no reflector unit, so it will pack away fairly easy.

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/touringaerials.html#DMlogBestTouringAerial

I also bought their 4 section pole.

I have only just got the aerial and I have only used it in our marina, but it gave a fantastic signal, with it just lying on a box on the cabin roof under the spray hood, without even bothering to set up the pole. It continued to supply a good signal, even when it was pointing 45deg off the correct direction.

Through that site, you will also find links so that you can identify all the local aerials. They are all marked on my charts.

We had previously struggled to get pictures using one of the small indoor aerials with an amplifier, but we find that once we had gone to the digital signals, then any movement of the boat caused picture breakup.

 

[Bruce Dibben]

Very encouraging thread Martin & Rene. Will seriously study this product and all the other helpful answers from other sailors. Someone says that step 1 is to buy a Smart TV and I will have to decipher the jargon that followed. Still finding it hard to comprehend in these days of cheap drones that can take pictures of the neighbours cat by the pilot shuffling their digits across a Smart phone screen and travelling people leave home with a slight chance of a TV signal.
Bruce

 

[V1701]

These small Necvox (passive) aerials work really well, used one on my boat in marina (where there's not a great signal) for a few years with a Cello 12 tv/dvd combo. Aerial sits just under the sprathood and also had one on a campervan. I've tried numerous other small aerials, none of which was satisfactory. Do make sure there's at least a signal of sorts where you are though, i.e. ask around to see what others are using where you are as you may be in an area with no signal and if there's no signal then no aerial will work...

 

[Danny]

I use a really cheap log periodic aerial for freeview TV reception. I usually fit it on a winch handle and slot this onto one of the winches near the companionway (Legend 356). Point it roughly toward the transmitter and it works great.

Can't remember where I got it - probably Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Labgear-LPCT-Compact-Periodic-Aerial/dp/B00LFMVQN2/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1449086143&sr=1-2&keywords=log+periodic+tv+aerial looks identical.

 

[single]

+1 Between Bristol, Watchet and Cardiff you will be under, possibly, Wenvoe or Mendip with several other fill ins. The usual problem in the area is selecting fewer signals to avoid receiving the wrong region (West or Wales). Have you tried a simple yagi on the cabin roof - lead the cable in temporarily through a vent or port.

Cheers
Bob

PS The rise and fall of the tide may be a problem only if you have a reflective path off the sea in addition to the direct path (air only).

I use a mast mounted Glomex and get a good signal everywhere around Cardiff/Watchet etc

 

[Bruce Dibben]

Really grateful for all the kind advice proffered on the forum and have made a list of the cheapest to the inevitable. Stayed overnight in a chums caravan at the Bath main site next to the river. The site was suddenly for a better verb "invaded" by a club tour of German motor homes of the poshest variety. Before the wheels had stopped rolling satellite dishes were popping out of their roof enclosures, dancing vertically and horizontally searching for a target of which there were none so closed down one by one. I politely enquired as to the price of these 21st century marvels to be stunned by the £1400 pound average, Just for watching junk TV. I hesitated in suggesting the glories of sailing in case they took me to heart and bagged the best berths.
Bruce Dibben.

 

[Halo]

Not sure if you have an iPad. If you do then I suggest an Eyetv unit. This is a little gizmo that plugs into the iPad and gives you free view tv works well for me on my L33

 

[Richard10002]

Not sure if you have an iPad. If you do then I suggest an Eyetv unit. This is a little gizmo that plugs into the iPad and gives you free view tv works well for me on my L33

Doesnt this require a good TV signal to work? Which would bring us back to aerials?

 

[Halo]

Doesnt this require a good TV signal to work? Which would bring us back to aerials?

Good question. All I can say is that so far it has worked pretty well for me around the coasts of N Western Engalnd & Wales and the E and S Coasts or Eire. Sometimes I have had to put the mini (6") arial supplied outside via a hatch in the saloon but generally it has worked by hanging the arial lead over the hatch closing lever handle and leting the arial dangle down inside the saloon. The only place it has failed to work is Holyhead marina - but I can only get radio 4 there via t'internet as the place seems to be in the lee of S Stach and the Welsh mountains.
.

 

[William_H]

TV antenna will as said vary with signal strength as to what is adequate. So you start off with cheap/convenient and work your way towards the sophisticated and more inconvenient until you get a compromise. That article linked above has useful info.
Higher the antenna the better
Must be correct polarisation. ie vertical or horizontal. ie for the common yagi type with elements sticking out like a fish bone if elements are horizontal or vertical. So those disc type omni directionals are usually horizontal but may need to be vertical like a wheel.
Yagi type directional antenna can multiply the signal strength by being directional. Like a flashlight reflector versus naked bulb. The bigger ie more elements the more directivity and gain. However a yagi cut for one specific channel has better gain than one designed to cover a wide range of frequencies.
Omni directional antenna are good for a car or boat under way ie changing direction of travel or if you are too lazy to orientate when you stop but have inherent poor performance. They usually have an amplifier built in which must be powered.
Any antenna must have a cable connection. If this is long then signal is lost in the cable. A weak signal can be lost in the inherent noise of the amplifier. So the signal must be boosted before the cable losses. Generally a TV first amplifier is good enough for weak signals but sometimes a booster will help. Especially for mong cable runs like 10 metres or so. Booster must be at the antenna before the cable losses.
I am at a bit of a disadvantage not being in UK so can only talk in general terms. Here in oz all TV is now digital which presents the problem that a signal (picture) is either good or not existent. My TV here at home ina set up and tune page gives signal strength which could be used to aid aligning the antenna for best signal. NB both direction and polarisation. Just a few thoughts. You will either succeed or give up for your mooring. olewill